Margarita Takes It All

The winner of the Margarita vs. Chocolate Martini competition is the Margarita.

Sorry Chocolate Martini, it was a close one - but in the end, the more experienced, more stable Margarita won out.

There's always next year.  And luckily, I know just how to make a low calorie, all natural margarita. I will be making one (or several) tonight to celebrate.

 

And Then There Were Two..

When last we met, I was talking about creating an NCAA-inspired drinks bracket, and match-by-match, I would whittle them down to the Championship Cocktail Tip-off. Well tonight, April 4, 2011 is the big night. In about twenty minutes, to be exact.

 

I have done some comprehensive research over the past two weeks, asking friends, coworkers and strangers alike what their favorite cocktails are. I knew that I could recreate any of their drink seeds with a lower calorie, lighter version, so I didn't ask them to stick to healthy recipes -- that would be my job after the Championship teams, I mean drinks, were determined.

 

The Sweet Sixteen included some off-the-beaten-path yet much beloved concoctions like The Sidecar (basically a margarita, but with brandy instead of tequila) and Mai Tai (it's barely spring in New England - not quite Mai Tai weather, but this definitely got plenty of votes - probably based on alcohol strength alone).  They didn't make it to the Elite Eight though.

 

Those lucky drinks were: The Margarita, The Cosmopolitan, The Manhattan, Strawberry Daiquiri, Madras, Chocolate Martini, Gin & Tonic, and The Old Fashioned.

 

A few drinks, votes and hangovers later, we came up with our Final Four: Margarita, Cosmopolitan, Gin & Tonic, and Chocolate Martini.

 

And tonight, the final match-up is: Margarita vs. Chocolate Martini.  Who will win??? Two different types of sweet drinks pitted against each other.  Each has their frenzied following.  And each can be made healthier in the Liquor Chick lab than they would be anywhere else you might order one. 

 

The pros: Margarita is great for summer afternoons on the deck, and serves as a kind of thirst quencher.  It can be made many different ways (with or without triple sec; some have orange juice; salt or not; shaken or blended)

 

Chocolate Martini is definitely a sipping kind of cocktail.  It is generally an after-dinner cocktail.  It can be creamy or clear, depending on the preferred ingredients.  It is more of a winter drink, which people order as a way to warm up.

 

Two very different drinks.  Two very different teams about to tip-off. Who will win? And how close will it be? Start pouring, watch the four quarters, and check back for the results.  Oh, and please vote for your team below, by leaving a comment.

 

Margarita vs. Chocolate Martini. Please stand for the National (drinking) Anthem...

 

 

Chocolate Martini....

 

(photo courtesy of Getty images)

 

VS.

 

 

Is that an "M" for "Margarita"?

 

(photo courtesy of Sportscape TV)

A (Lemon) Twist on the NCAA Tournament

Yes, I realize I am a few days and a couple rounds late to the Big Dance.  In all honesty, I've been watching, and reading, and listening about the brackets, the missed calls and crazy upsets. And all the while, I've been wondering -- what kind of drink should I make to watch these games?  Maybe it was the mention of "rounds" so many times, but, inevitably the NCAA tournament makes me thirsty.

 

So would my drink choice be ranked above someone else's choice?  And then I thought some more... brackets!

 

What would the Final Four of Cocktails be?
Well, on first thought, it's easy to break them down into mixed drink, wine, beer and spirit.  Or maybe we could pit vodka, gin, rum and tequila against each other and see which is the last one is standing.  And, I probably need to recruit some opinion givers.  Yeah, that should be hard...

 

Who knows- maybe an underdog like Florida State would win out (to me, the equivalent would be a Tequila Sunset - not one that surfaces much, but when it does, to a very specific fan frenzy) over the usually popular choice (like the Margarita? Am I saying Texas A&M’s drink of choice is a margarita? Hmm. I wonder how they would react to that). 

 

Or maybe a last-minute surge of votes would push a drink to claim the title (just like when Morehead State’s Demonte Harper buried a 3-pointer with 6 seconds left for an upset win over 4^th seeded Louisville).

 

We'll see.  The mechanics are yet to be worked out.  Kind of like Kansas in the first half against Boston University in the first round.  Yet, to my dismay (alma mater), they picked it up and handily won against the Terriers.  But just because that 16th seed couldn't unseat a number-1, doesn't mean that a Cinderella Cocktail can't win out over a Past Champion.

 

Next up: the brackets  and the rules of this Tournament of Tastes. Be sure to check back once the rankings are up, and start your voting.

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

Photo courtesy of www.schneiderdowns.com

Soooo.....The Results Are in!

Experiment successful!! In my last entry, I talked about the idea of cheating along a not-s0-great vodka into tasting like a nice one. Could I actually do it? Well, here's how I left the solution for about 2 1/2 hours:

Crappy vodka cooking with orange peels for less than 3 hours worked just great.And then, with a few Liquor Chick-approved splashes (light cranberry juice, fresh squeezed pineapple jucie), we made this:


With a few additives, gutter shelf vodka tastes like top shelf. And boy did we enjoy it. We must have - we made 3 more (two each, total). The vodka did impart some orange flavor in that short period of time - especially since we only took about 8 shots of vodka for the quick infusion. Sooo, that lesson in budgetnomics and creativity is:

If you don't want to splurge on the expensive, you can fool your taste buds (and head - no hangover today! Must have been the juices) into thinking you're drinking the best with a little bit of time and planning.

Drink Well!!